The present invention relates generally to protective fendering systems covering the side hulls of cargo surface ships.
The transfer of cargo from an off-shore location to a ship at sea heretofore involved what is referred to as joint-logistic-over-the-shore operations, without use of port facilities. Such operations included approach of a smaller, lighterage craft to a position adjacent the larger cargo ship at which it is maintained by mooring while cargo is being transferred thereto by use of shipboard cranes and craft interfacing ramps and platforms. While moored adjacent to each other, protective fendering systems were hung over the sides of the ships and/or crafts, involving sausage fenders consisting of foam filled rubber shells. Such fenders were subject to various problems such as impact rupture, insufficient interfacing size and vessel imposing damage, especially under heavy weather conditions. It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide a protective fendering system for surface ships during off-shore cargo transfer operations under heavy weather conditions, which avoids the durability, compatibility and operability problems heretofore experienced.
In accordance with the present invention, protective fendering covering the hull side of a water surface ship during off-shore transfer of cargo to a smaller lighterage craft, includes a fender unit formed from an assembly of elongated box sections respectively enclosing cavities with floatation buoyancy foam blocks therein and a base tray to which the box sections are pivotally linked for displacement relative thereto between stowage and deployed positions. In the stowage positions, the box sections extend horizontally from the base tray in longitudinal alignment with each other to accommodate storage. The fender unit in such stowage condition is lifted and deposited by shipboard crane into the water alongside of the cargo ship, causing the box sections to fill with water and thereby automatically rotate 90xc2x0 to vertically deployed positions in which they are then locked in close laterally spaced relation to each other by a spreader bar. When so deployed, the fender unit sinks in the water to a depth predetermined by ballast weights at the bottom of each box section and on the bottom of the base tray. At such water submerged depth, portions of the deployed box sections project above the water surface level exposing pairs of arch-shaped vertical fender elements on one side partially above the water surface for abutment by an approaching lighterage craft that is to be moored to the cargo ship during transfer of cargo therefrom, while pairs of horizontal fender elements on the other sides of the box sections of the fender unit are respectively exposed above and below the water surface level for abutment with the cargo ship hull.